Labour attack Boris over Tube’s ‘week of chaos’

Labour say tube passengers have endured a 'week of chaos' . Photo: MayorWatchLabour have accused London Mayor Boris Johnson of presiding of a “week of chaos” on the tube and claim “millions” of passengers have endured disruption and delays.

Figures compiled by London Assembly Member Val Shawcross suggest there have been 33 separate delays, closures and suspensions caused by signal failures, faulty trains and non-availability of staff.

Shawcross, who is Ken Livingstone’s running mate in next year’s Mayoral elections, said:

“I can’t remember a worse week of delays on the tube. No line has been spared delays this week with severe delays and whole line suspensions causing huge inconvenience to the daily lives of millions of Londoners. No wonder Boris Johnson stopped publishing monthly tube performance statistics earlier this year!

‘It’s simply not good enough when Londoners tell me that delays are the norm, not the exception whilst they are paying record high fares to use a tube service which we cannot rely on. They need a Mayor who will put them first, rather than rip them off.

The Assembly’s Transport Committee claimed passengers are spending around 6.5m additional hours on the tube because of delays and blamed delays on the four worst performing lines – the Jubilee, Victoria, District and Metropolitan – on equipment failure.

Although Assembly Members found delays had reduced by 27% since London Underground began its upgrade programme in 2003/04, they also noted that August 2010 to January 2011 “saw the longest sustained period of poor performance on the Tube since upgrade work began.”

Shawcross has accused the Mayor of being “out of touch with Londoners.”

She added: ‘While Boris Johnson was boasting about how great London’s tube services were to the Conservative Party Conference this week, millions of Londoners were stuck on tube trains.”